"I'm
filled with hatred toward these elections, and I will never recognize
them," Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov said at the rally.

Prime
Minister Putin, 59, is returning to the Kremlin for a third non-consecutive
term in office. He trounced his rivals with 63.6 percent of the vote, according
to final figures from Central Election Commission.

Related:

Election
and police officials have acknowledged violations, but insisted they were too
small to make a significant impact on the vote’s outcome. Putin has ordered
investigations into all violation reports.

Police said
that the turnout at the anti-Putin rally, titled “For Fair Elections” stood at
14,000. Organizers said at least 20,000 showed up.

The venue
was full some time before anuy speakers took the floor, and the crowd broke into chants of “Russia
Without Putin” from time to time.

“You have
stolen from us!” whistleblowing activist Alexei Navalny shouted into a microphone, referring to the authorities.

Presidential
candidate Mikhail Prokhorov, a tycoon who targeted the middle class and took 7.9 percent of the vote, also took the stage to renew his
pledge to establish a political party. His appearance elicited a mixed reaction
of boos and cheers.

City
Hall was reluctant to sanction the grassroots protest rally, denying organizers
all three preferred venues last week. Only after some 5,000 signed up on Facebook to participate in a rally in defiance of the ban did the Moscow authorities and the organizers work
out a compromise.

Police
invited Udaltsov and fellow opposition politician Ilya Yashin for a
“prophylactic talk” ahead of the rally on Monday, but both refused to attend.

Dozens of
trucks with riot police rolled into downtown Moscow on Monday, and a helicopter hovered in the sky over Pushkinskaya Square
at the rally’s start. City police officials threatened to crack down on anyone
violating rules for public rallies.

The election results. Source: The data from Central Election Commission and VTsIOM. Click to enlarge.

Four
massive anti-Putin rallies have taken place in Moscow
since the parliamentary elections Dec. 4, each gathering tens of
thousands. All ended without incident, even earning praise from Putin for
their peaceful nature.

Opposition
leader Boris Nemtsov said the event on Pushkinskaya Square would be followed at 9
p.m. by a flashmob in which silent protesters encircle the Kremlin in a human
chain.

Police said
the event is illegal and would be dispersed, according to a report on the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio
station. However, law enforcements did not intervene with a similar flashmob
on Feb. 26 in
which several thousand opponents of Putin lined up along the Garden Ring in central Moscow forming a human chain.

The post-election Protests
were kicked off by a Communist Party rally. The Communist candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, was the runner-up on Sunday with 17.2 percent of the vote. Police
said some 300 people showed up for the event, which took place on Pushkin Square before the larger
grassroots event.

About 100
activists of the radical opposition group The Other Russia were detained
during an unsanctioned protest near the office of the Central Elections
Commission in downtown Moscow
on Monday. Police said about 800 turned up and about 70 of them were held.

Novelist-turned-politician
Eduard Limonov, who heads The Other Russia, was among those detained, the
group’s spokesman said.

At least 30
were also detained at an unsanctioned opposition rally at St. Petersburg’s Isaakiyevsky Square the same evening, the BaltInfo local news website reported.

Meanwhile,
about 10,000 rallied at the Manezh
Square by the Kremlin walls to hail Putin’s
victory at the presidential polls, police said.

Speakers at
the pro-Putin event included sports and showbiz celebrities, who congratulated
Putin on his victory while denouncing the opposition’s claims that
campaigning was unfair and the vote was rigged.

“The forces
of good have won, Vladimir Putin united everyone,” said B-list actor Sergei Gerasimov, to moderate cheers from the crowd.